Better Roads, Not Bigger

Some information may be out of date while we rebuild the site following being hacked. Please bear with us.

This website is provided by Arundel SCATE – a group of residents and businesses looking for more advanced and less destructive transport choices for the area. We oppose plans for an A27 dual carriageway here, but want to see improved access through a mix of measures including smaller road improvements, walking and cycling infrastructure and better public transport.

Department for Transport plans for developing the A27 as a dual carriageway across the Arun Valley at Arundel have been previously rejected as too environmentally damaging and not cost effective.

However, following a consultation in October 2017, Highways England have chosen dual carriageway option 5A as their preferred route, and plan for construction to begin in 2020. You can see the route here.

The data presented by Highways England for the consultation was highly flawed and misleading, and the resulting decision is being challenged, with two judicial reviews of the consultation due to be heard in late November, 2018. Highways England has admitted to numerous errors, and will be re-running the consultation in spring 2019.

Option 5A would cut across the Arun Valley, affecting flood management and destroying the water meadows, chalk streams and irreplaceable ancient woodland in the South Downs National Park. Populations of birds and rare and protected species including bats and dormice would be lost. The dual carriageway would split the village of Binsted, and the historic landscape, popular for local walks and enjoyed by locals and visitors, would be spoiled forever.

All this destruction is unlikely to produce any long term transport benefits, as new road space will fill up and increases traffic levels in nearby roads. Highways England tells us pollution is likely to increase in the town, as a result of a major new road.

A27 Arundel dual carriageway proposals are a waste of public money, short sighted, highly destructive and out of date.